July 2017: Meeting veteran and newbie JAWdesses near and far

I recently attended the Investigative Reports and Editor (IRE) conference in Phoenix, Ariz., and hosted a JAWS meetup. Among the group were at least two students, current and former board members, past fellows and one future fellow, Chandra Bozelko. There were even two Brennas from Arizona sitting next to each other – Brenna Goth, a fellow at last year’s Conference and Mentoring Project (CAMP), and Brenna Bailey, a University of Arizona student member.

We shared stories about work, IRE and, of course, our excitement about attending CAMP.

When it comes to our fellows, a JAWS tradition is raising money to help these young women come to CAMP.

Our 14 fellows are already out there asking friends and family to support them. Your board members are also reaching out to our networks to bring these wonderful young women to CAMP. In fact, Andrea Stone helped us kick things off with a $1,000 matching grant.

If you haven’t chipped in yet, we hope you will. This is one of the two annual fundraising efforts JAWS makes, and it’s truly worthwhile.

We can’t wait to meet our fellows in Hot Springs in October, where they’ll build relationships that last a lifetime!

– Sandra Fish, JAWS president